This invention relates generally to equipment used in swimming instruction and training, and, more particularly, to flotation devices used in swimming.
Flotation devices have, in a general sense, long been used in swimming instruction and training. Inflatable "water wings" were once commonly used for buoyancy when teaching young children to swim. However, the present invention is concerned with a very specific flotation problem associated with swimming instruction. With a full breath of air, practically everyone will float in water, but there is a wide variation in the degree to which different people will float. Many people, particularly women, float easily on their backs in a horizontal position, even when their lungs are not fully inflated. Others float in a more nearly vertical orientation, with their legs at an angle of forty-five degrees or more below the horizontal position. Persons in this latter group are often referred to as "sinkers," but a more accurate term is "vertical floaters." The factors that determine whether a person is a horizontal or a vertical floater are diverse, and not completely understood. The principal ones appear to be weight distribution, fat-to-muscle weight ratio, and bone weight.
Vertical floaters can usually attain a horizontal position by maintaining a low flutter kick, or by suitably positioning their arms stretched out over their heads to balance the weight of their legs. However, these solutions to the problem can be distracting or impractical when the person is receiving instruction for a particular swimming stroke. Some vertical floaters remain poor swimmers or non-swimmers all of their lives because of the increased difficulty of learning to swim without the ability to float horizontally. A significant number of people are aquaphobics who have never learned to swim because of a fear associated with water. If an aquaphobic is also a vertical floater, there is a reduced possibility of this person ever overcoming the fear and achieving any level of confidence in the water, even with expert instruction.
One approach that is sometimes used in teaching the crawl stroke is to secure relatively large Styrofoam floats to the swimmer's legs. These apply a substantial buoyancy force, and permit the swimmer to concentrate on the arm stroke or breathing rhythm associated with the stroke. Floats known as "pull-buoys" are sometimes used by swimmers for the development of upper-body strength, to support their legs in an immobile position while their arms alone are used for propulsion. The use of such flotation devices has the disadvantage that they usually feel unnatural, awkward or clumsy to the swimmer, because of the relatively large buoyancy force that they provide. Moreover, for much the same reasons, such devices are not well suited for teaching beginning swimming. For beginning swimmers, a primary goal is to attain confidence in the front-floating and back-floating positions, coupled with the ability to make easy transitions between these positions. A large buoyant force on the legs helps with the flotation difficulty, but often does not instill confidence because of the clumsiness and relatively large buoyant forces associated with the devices.
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that there is still an important need for a suitable device to address all of these problems and difficulties. The present invention fulfills this need.